WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today asked a federal court to bar
Ray Robert Ladner, a tax return preparer from Pass Christian, Mississippi,
from preparing income tax returns for others. The civil injunction suit, filed
in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, in
Gulfport, alleges that Ladner prepared a variety of fraudulent income tax
returns. The government also seeks an order directing Ladner to provide the
government his customers’ names, telephone and Social Security numbers, and
mailing and e-mail addresses.

According to the complaint, Ladner, operating under the names Professional
Accounting Services, Inc., Professional Associates, Inc., Ladner’s Accounting
Service Inc., Express Refund Tax Service, and Coast Accounting & Tax Service,
Inc., prepared returns improperly claiming deductions for fabricated
charitable contributions, business losses, expenses, and improperly claiming
the earned income tax credit. The complaint projects that returns Ladner is
believed to have prepared for the 2002 and 2003 tax years may have cost the
United States Treasury more than $1.8 million.

The government also accuses Ladner of improperly preparing returns by
fraudulently using the names and Social Security numbers of his customers and
their minor children. In one instance, Ladner allegedly claimed fraudulent
dependent exemptions on a customer’s return using the names and Social
Security numbers of other customers’ children. The government also accuses
Ladner of fabricating income for a customer who had none in order to claim the
earned income tax credit, a benefit that is available under some circumstances
to low-income working people. Then, Ladner allegedly had the resulting
improper tax refund paid to him, rather than to the customer whose return he
prepared.

“People who prepare fraudulent tax returns cheat their customers and unfairly
shift the tax burden to honest American taxpayers,” said Eileen J. O'Connor,
Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “If you
have your tax return prepared, choose your preparer carefully, and be sure
that what you file with the IRS is truthful.”

The government’s complaint is part of an ongoing crackdown on fraudulent
return preparers. The Justice Department has filed numerous lawsuits seeking
injunctions against return preparers who prepare false or fraudulent federal
tax returns. More information about these cases is available at
<http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2005.htm>. More information about
the Tax Division is available at:
<http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html>.